Join artist Sylvana Barrett as she brings sculpture to life with Baroque polychrome painting techniques including oil painting and estofado, the elegant and elaborate gilding decoration used in 17th-century Spain. Complements the exhibition La Roldana's Saint Ginés: The Making of a Polychrome Sculpture.

Our one-hour tours for children (ages 5 and up) and adults to enjoy together feature a fun, activity-filled visit to the galleries. Space is limited. Sign up at the Museum Information Desk beginning at 1:30 p.m. the day of the program.

Enjoy a one-hour tour focusing on the Getty's collection of Sculpture by exploring works from European history and the recent past. Meet at the Museum Information Desk.

Exhibitions

Walls of Algiers: Narratives of the CityDaily through October 18, 2009Research Institute Exhibition Gallery, Getty Center

The city of Algiers, renowned for its white walls cascading to the Mediterranean, historically sheltered a diverse population. During the Ottoman centuries (1529–1830), Algeria had been a semi-independent province of the empire. French rule (1830–1962) transformed Algeria. European norms and the French system of governance were imposed. The land was mapped, its peoples surveyed and classified, and dramatic interventions to urban fabrics enforced a new duality. In Algiers the "Arab" city on the hillside, known as the Casbah, was separated from the "French" or European city that spread out in districts below and around the Casbah. This division endured during the 132 years of French occupation leading to the War of Independence (1954–1962). More than a colonial capital, Algiers served as a testing ground for urban renewal with its walls extending metaphorically across the Mediterranean to take part in the search for modernity. Walls of Algiers: Narratives of the City, examines the city's complex history by considering its places and peoples through diverse 19th- and 20th-century visual sources. The exhibition will trace, for example, an itinerary of the Casbah and the European quarters through vintage postcards, and juxtapose the long-tradition of staged Orientalist representations of "indigenous" people with photojournalist coverage from the Algerian War.

Made for ManufactureDaily through July 5, 2009Museum Galleries, Getty Center

For both economic and creative reasons, many Renaissance and Baroque artists made drawings for sculpture and decorative arts. Such designs are appreciated not only for their aesthetic merit, but for how they were actually used. This exhibition comprises drawings for three-dimensional objects to be made in a variety of media, including metal, wood, glass, ceramic, and stone, with particular attention paid to how the form of a design reflects an object's function and how two-dimensional drawings were transferred to three-dimensional works of art.

In Focus: The PortraitDaily through June 14, 2009West Pavilion, Terrace Level, Getty Center

Since its invention, photography has forged a revolution in documentary evidence and artistic representation, especially in the realm of portraiture. A more democratic, inexpensive medium than most traditional artistic media, photography made portraits available to a wider public. This exhibition, drawn exclusively from the Getty Museum's collection, presents the evolution of the genre from commissioned portraits to intimate views as well as those reflecting social concerns. Works by such photographers as Félix Nadar, Edward Steichen, Walker Evans, and Nan Goldin are included.

Luisa Roldán (Spanish, 1650–1704), affectionately known as La Roldana, was one of the most celebrated and prolific sculptors of the Baroque period. This intimate exhibition introduces visitors to La Roldana, whose artistic superiority catapulted her to fame at the royal court in an otherwise male-dominated profession. She ran a workshop, worked for the king, raised a family, and was a celebrity in her own day. With her polychrome sculpture of Saint Ginés de la Jara from the Getty Museum's collection as a focal point, this exhibition explores the artist's life, artistic achievement, and the multifaceted process used to create masterfully lifelike polychrome sculpture.

Focusing on the sculptural aspects of the decorative arts, this exhibition explores the rich plasticity of objects intended for functional or ceremonial use. In addition to sculpture, it showcases astonishingly inventive works of art, such as furniture, light fixtures, and accessories for the hearth from the Getty Museum and Temple Newsam, a historic country house near Leeds, England. Nearly forty extraordinary works from England, France, Holland, and Italy—executed in the exuberant Baroque and Rococo styles popular during the 1600s and 1700s—are featured. Taking Shape: Finding Sculpture in the Decorative Arts has been co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.

Paul Outerbridge Jr. (American, 1896–1958) burst onto the New York art scene in the early 1920s with photographs that were visually fresh and decidedly Modernist. He applied his talent for the formal arrangement of objects to the commercial world and was a visionary for his use of color. This exhibition brings together nearly one hundred photographs from all periods of Outerbridge's career, including his Cubist still life images, staged magazine photographs, and controversial nudes.

In 1977 Susan Sontag's now-classic collection of serious criticism, On Photography, brought photography to center stage. That same year, Jo Ann Callis, an art student at the University of California, Los Angeles, who had learned to draw, paint, and photograph, received her master of fine arts degree. Her mentor, legendary art professor Robert Heinecken, taught that photographs should be made, not found, and Callis has been constructing photographs, as well as paintings and sculpture, in her studio ever since. Over the past 30 years, she has borrowed inspiration and imagery from the best of Los Angeles's traditions in film, fashion, and design. Fabricated tableaux of the 1980s and 1990s dominate this photographs exhibition selected from the Getty's holdings, gifts from the photographer Gay Block, and the artist's own archive.

Temptation and Salvation: The Psalms of King DavidDaily through August 16, 2009North Pavilion, Plaza Level, Getty Center

The 150 Psalms of the Bible played a central role in Christian religious life throughout the Middle Ages, their elusive poetry attracting both written interpretation and painted decoration. Medieval artists illustrated the psalms in a variety of ways, at times concentrating on the literal meaning of single verses, and at other times addressing broader themes, such as the role of the Psalms in preparing the Christian faithful for the Last Judgment. This exhibition celebrates the importance of the Psalms in medieval devotion and reveals the splendor and variety of the illumination developed to accompany them.

Drop by anytime between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to explore travel and trade in the ancient world. Hear the tale of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece and play the Trading Game, where your family becomes ancient traders crossing the high seas.

This 45-minute journey through the galleries features a fun, activity-filled visit for children (ages 5 and up) and adults to enjoy together. Space is limited. Ofrecida en español. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the program.

This 20-minute gallery talk introduces ways of looking at ancient art through an in-depth exploration of one object in the collection. This month the featured object is the newly installed Statue of an Ephebe (Youth) as a lampbearer, a Roman sculpture from around 20–10 B.C. Space is limited. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the talk.

This one-hour tour provides an overview of major works from the Museum's collection. Offered in English and Spanish. Space is limited. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the tour.

On average, museum visitors spend no more than 30 seconds viewing a single artwork. Learn how to slow down and take time to look closer in this interactive tour. Space is limited. Tour topic subject to change. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the talk.

Carved gemstones have captivated connoisseurs of every age, from antiquity to the modern period. The exhibition Carvers and Collectors: The Lasting Allure of Ancient Gems brings together remarkable intaglios and cameos carved by ancient master engravers along with some of the outstanding works by modern carvers that they have inspired. The gems are displayed together with material from later periods that evinces their importance through the ages—illuminated manuscripts, rare engravings from early catalogues, cabinets designed to house collections of gems, and other works of art in diverse media to illustrate the lasting allure of these masterpieces in miniature.